She Can't Leave
Can't leave, can she? Chloe wasn't an idiot. She was a seasoned assassin. Would a battle-hardened killer like her stand here without a counter to Marian's thunder orbs, something she'd already experienced once?
What the...? Why no lightning...
Marian, who had been hurling thunder orbs nonstop, tilted her head in confusion. The number of lightning bolts chasing Chloe was far fewer than expected. It didn't feel like they were specifically homing in on her—more like some were just spilling over in her direction amid the wild scattering everywhere.
"Scanner."
Feeling something off, Marian kept tossing thunder orbs with one hand while pulling out a pair of glasses-shaped artifact called the Scanner with the other and slipping them on. According to the info projected by the scanner...
"Metal objects... none...?"
It said Chloe's body had no metal. That explained why the lightning wasn't drawn to her. Without a conductor to act as a lightning rod, there was no reason for the thunder orbs' bolts—lacking any special intent—to pursue her.
But if that was the case...
"Then what's that...?"
What was that thing Chloe was clutching in both hands, darting around so frantically? It sure looked like a dagger, but the scanner said no metal?
Marian cocked her head in bewilderment, and Chloe, in the midst of evading the lightning, shouted back defiantly.
"It's a stone knife!"
"Huh...?"
"You think I'd come unprepared when I know you're using lightning?"
"A stone knife...?"
She was saying she'd face her with just a stone knife? Marian let out a scoffing laugh and pulled out a new type of artifact. The Shrimp-Catching Seaweed artifact—the one that had traumatized Chloe before.
"A mere stone knife won't cut through this, will it?"
The Shrimp-Catching Seaweed, infused with Marian's mana, was tough enough that even a steel dagger could barely slice it. A dagger made of stone wouldn't land a solid hit.
With a faint smile, Marian began hurling dozens of Shrimp-Catching Seaweed artifacts in rapid succession, just like before. And Chloe...
"She... cut it...?"
Chloe was slicing the Shrimp-Catching Seaweed artifacts apart as they split open and unleashed their tendrils—using nothing but that stone knife. A simple stone knife, carving up seaweed saturated with mana and potions? Marian stood there dumbfounded for a moment at the impossible sight.
"It's an obsidian blade! The cutting power is insane, right?"
Chloe, for her part, explained how she'd countered Marian's ploy while pressing the fight, blissfully unaware that today's lessons would one day tighten around her own throat.
"How is she?"
Rosetta popped a grape into her mouth with an appreciative aah and asked Brumen for his impressions. About Chloe.
"She moves like a proper assassin. The title isn't just for show."
"That's not what I meant."
"As for her skill... well, she's definitely top-tier among assassins. She might lose in a straight fight, but if someone with those moves ambushed you..."
"They'd die?"
"Any young noble who hasn't fully matured would be dead nine times out of ten."
"Hmm, really?"
She'd known Chloe was an assassin because Haksen had outlined the rough plan before passing out, but hearing the details straight from Brumen hit different.
"Her...?"
The doting fool who chattered nonstop about what the young miss did today, what she might do tomorrow, how much she'd grown, and so on? The shadow of high society, the noble-slaying assassin Golden Darkness?
"Hmm..."
Come to think of it, when they'd first met, she'd asked not to be called by her moniker Golden Darkness anymore since she was retiring. That made it seem like she really planned to leave once Marian turned seventeen in two years...
"She can't leave."
"Pardon?"
"No, I mean her. She won't be able to leave."
"Isn't Lady Chloe's contract until she turns twenty-four, two years from now? Unless she specifically wants to extend it, there's no reason for her to stay."
Brumen asked, puzzled, but Rosetta waved him off with a scolding tsk.
"Did you even hear me? I didn't say she won't leave—I said she can't."
"Pardon?"
"Think about it. How many years has that girl been studying alchemy?"
"Three...? Lady Chloe joined our ducal house as a retainer three years ago..."
"No, two and a half."
In reality, it had only been two and a half years since Marian started making offensive artifacts. And yet...
"Brumen, you think you could shake off those lightning bolts?"
"I'd snap out of it... I was once called a swordmaster prospect, after all. Though I've long since given up on that."
"Right, someone at your level might shrug it off. But Chloe's different. She's a regular person who can't even use mana."
"Pardon...?"
Brumen tilted his head again, looking oddly cute for a middle-aged knight past fifty. Rosetta clicked her tongue in annoyance and rephrased.
"Let me change the question. Do you think Marian—that child—could ever let Chloe go? Cleanly, after two years?"
"Uh..."
Brumen trailed off, unable to answer immediately. As Rosetta's retainer, he'd served as knight commander here and trained her five children. He knew all too well the dark history of how Rosetta and her kids had tormented Marian like a rat.
Which was why...
"You gonna keep that up? Everything gets cut anyway!"
"Why don't you get caught for once? One hit from these new thunder orbs, and you won't know what hit you."
"Hehe, no thanks?"
...playing so joyfully with Marian like that. A tutor with a firm philosophy of self-defense training disguised as games. A big-sister-like teacher in Chloe...
"Could she let her go...?"
Brumen couldn't bring himself to say Marian could let Chloe go. As he'd said, he knew the intensity of Marian's past torments and how she'd barely survived her childhood. Not even empty words of reassurance would come out.
"Viola says she's betting wish slips on hide-and-seek or hunting games..."
If she kept providing such strong motivation, forcing Marian to study alchemy on her own...
"Chloe won't be able to handle her before the two years are up."
"Probably... An alchemist whose workshop is closed off isn't something an assassin without mana training can match."
"Exactly. And Marian—that child."
A child who'd known neither family love nor maternal affection, raised without protectors.
"Could she leave someone weaker than her now—who says she's leaving—her favorite tutor of all people? Just let her go? For real?"
"Uh... what are you trying to say, my lady?"
"Just want some entertaining spectacle in my old age."
Rosetta chuckled merrily at Brumen's bewildered question, and the bout between Chloe and Marian seemed to be tilting in one direction.
Good, almost out of them...?
Marian was peeking into her transparent pouch more and more often. Probably checking how many artifacts were left.
Just one opening, then rush in and subdue her.
She couldn't shove the obsidian blade at Marian, so it'd be a light joint lock to end it. Of course, she wouldn't apply much force—wouldn't want to hurt her.
Hold it until I close in, then pocket it and switch to the lock. Perfect.
Chloe finished her mental simulation and waited for an opening from Marian. It didn't take long.
"Huh?"
Now!
Marian's hand, reaching into the transparent pouch, didn't come out right away. She'd clearly used up her artifacts, and Chloe seized that split-second hesitation, surging forward to close the gap.
She dove into Marian's arms, aiming to bind her limbs...
"As expected..."
"Huh...?"
"I knew you'd do this, Chloe."
It was a feint...?
In Marian's hand, which should have been empty, thunder orbs emerged from the pouch. Not one, but three.
"You know, these don't hurt me since I made them with my own mana."
Marian grinned brightly and clenched her fist to shatter them.
"Wait, hold on!"
"Nope."
Lightning struck.